SEPANG – Malaysia Airports now promotes cashless convenience to tourists from China by partnering world’s largest online and mobile platform Alipay. At the recent Global Cashless Eco-System Summit 2017 in Beijing, China, Malaysia Airports was invited as a partner by Ant Financial Services Group that operates Alipay.

By collaborating with Alipay, Malaysia Airports hopes to create awareness, boost interest and also strengthen its brand positioning among travellers from China. Last year, Malaysia Airports had recorded 4.9 million passenger traffic movements from China. From January to July 2017, the numbers had increased further by 22% to 3.3 million when compared to the same period in the previous year. Improved connectivity and the ease of travel formalities are the two main factors for the increased numbers of tourist arrivals from China in the last several years. There are currently 470 flights per week connecting Malaysia and China.

“We are continuously looking to enhance the airport experience for all our customers. Thus, to embark on the Alipay cashless payment platform is a major step taken by Malaysia Airports to embrace the future of retail and F&B transactions at its airports. To date, 55.8% and 56.7% outlets at KLIA and klia2 Terminal respectively are transacting via Alipay. So far, we have seen a 25% increase in sales from overall Alipay transactions at both terminals.” “During shopping campaign period, sales can increase further by 35% to 40%,” said Badlisham Ghazali, the managing director of Malaysia Airports.

Badlisham added further that Malaysia Airports fully supports platforms such as Alipay for providing cashless convenience to customers, especially millennials who prefer to travel light and are technology savvy. He said that such cashless convenience is also in line with the organisations efforts to move towards a highly digitized airport environment. Through the Alipay in-store payment platform, customers can pay for their transactions in Chinese Yuan without having concerns on the exchange rate, with all transactions performed in a highly secure manner.

Nazli Aziz, senior general manager of Commercial Services who was at the summit introduced the Spend & Win Campaign that is catered specifically for Alipay users during the upcoming year-end holidays all the way until Chinese New Year. He said, “We are running this campaign from November 2017 to March 2018 to further entice our tourists from China. Great prizes awaits lucky Alipay users which includes a luxury watch as the monthly grand prize. There are also Malaysia Airports limited edition premium chocolates and e-vouchers to be won throughout this campaign.”

On top of that, Malaysia Airports will also introduce the Chinese Traveler Welcome Pack as part of its Total Airport Experience initiatives. The Welcome Pack will include information about special promotions, transit and baggage facilities, local city tours, fast track KUL VIP Access and many more. The Welcome Pack will be made available from mid-October 2017 till March 2018 at the Chinese Helpdesk and Customer Experience counters in KLIA and klia2 Terminal. Tourists from China would just need to present their passports to redeem the Welcome Pack.